Gwanak-gu has finalized five "Best Proactive Administration Cases for the First Half of 2026," recognizing administrative innovations that raised the quality of public services and delivered tangible improvements for residents. District Mayor Park Jun-hee leads the office.
The district holds a biannual open call for outstanding cases to encourage employees who have demonstrated creativity and expertise on the front lines and to spread a culture of proactive work across the civil service.
This round's selections went through a performance review, an employee vote, and a screening by the Proactive Administration Committee, yielding one top prize, two excellence awards and two commendation awards.
The top honor for the first half of the year went to the Local Commerce Revitalization Division's project to ease designation requirements for alley-type shopping streets and boost commerce through tailored support.
Alley shopping districts have long been excluded from various government support policies because they do not qualify as traditional markets under the Traditional Markets Act. Even the "alley-type shopping street" designation created to address that gap was difficult to obtain, blocked by a high bar in existing ordinances — including a requirement of at least 30 establishments per 2,000 square meters. The Local Commerce Revitalization Division pushed through a sweeping ordinance revision, cutting the density requirement from 30 establishments to 15 and opening the door to identifying new shopping streets.
The deregulation effort paid off: Gwanak-gu has now designated a total of 21 alley-type shopping streets, the most of any autonomous district in Seoul. From last December through May this year, four additional streets were added — Jowonbokgil, Sharosugil, Beauty Street and Purple Street. As a result, roughly 680 stores — about one-third of all affiliated shops in the district — now qualify for Onnuri gift-certificate membership benefits, laying a solid foundation for boosting alley commerce sales.
Beyond that top case, the district drew attention for identifying a broad range of "resident-felt administrative innovation" excellence cases that drove real change across everyday life, spanning leisure, health and lifestyle convenience.
The two excellence awards went to the creation of Nakseong Flower Garden, which transformed a deteriorated space into a multipurpose garden and cultural park, and the installation of Gwanak-gu's first physical fitness certification center, expanding resident access and one-stop health management infrastructure. The two commendation awards recognized the "Contract Calculator" webpage, which digitized and simplified complex contracting work, and "Re:Use Good Move," a program offering free reusable plastic moving boxes to single-person youth households to cut moving costs and promote resource recycling.
"This is the precious fruit of employees who went out into the field to resolve residents' inconveniences rather than settling for the way things have always been done," district mayor Park said. "We will provide clear incentives to employees who practice proactive administration to boost morale, and we will continue to spread an active and dynamic administrative culture so that residents can feel real change in their daily lives."
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